New York, New York!

It’s been a whirlwind of a month, but I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the opening reception of the Student Scholarship exhibit at the Society of Illustrators in NYC, in which my illustration was a finalist. It was super surreal to see one of MY pieces hanging in an exhibit in NYC. I did not win any awards at the reception, but it was fantastic to be there and I’m really honored and humbled.

I took terrible photos (it was a very crazy, chaotic 24 hours that I was there) but fortunately, some of my former classmates traveled to NYC last week and they stopped in at the museum. One of my former teachers took these photos of my piece, and I am very happy to have nice, quality photos of it hanging in the gallery!

I also happened to be BACK up in NYC over Memorial Day weekend to attend a few Broadway shows with my sister. We saw Cabaret (with Alan Cumming!) and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (with Neil Patrick Harris!). I love Cabaret, and I was so excited to be able to see Alan Cumming reprise the role (and he stood like 4 feet from me in the audience!) but… I was especially excited to see Hedwig. My first tattoo, on my hip, was the Origin of Love symbol used in the film. The show.. blew away my mind and both elated and destroyed my heart. The movie is fantastic, and I was skeptical that the show would give the same feels. But Oh. My. God. The show blew the movie out of the water. It was meant to be a stage show. Everything made so much sense. NPH played both the role of Hedwig and Tommy and after seeing that, I had a metaphorical head slap moment of going, “Of course he plays both roles. It makes so much sense! It’s his other half! He is his other half, is other half is him.” I still adore the movie, and I immediately watched it the first night I got back, but I don’t think anything will come close to what the show made me feel.

I love NYC and I have enjoyed my time up there this past month, but it’s also a city that really stresses me out. And it’s expensive. I’m looking forward to a few trips and visits this summer, but keeping it fairly low key from here on out. It’s very hard to save for a wedding when you’re traveling. Time to simmer down.